The death toll from a wildfire that razed a historic Maui town in Hawaii, U.S.A has reached 93, according to reports.
Authorities on Saturday, warned that the effort to find and identify the dead is still in its early stages as crews with cadaver dogs have covered just 3 per cent of the search area.
It’s already the deadliest U.S. wildfire for over a century.
“It will certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced,” Governor Josh Green said on Saturday as he toured the devastation in Lahaina.
The newly released death toll passed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise.
A century earlier, the 1918 Cloquet Fire broke out in drought-stricken northern Minnesota and raced through a number of rural communities, destroying thousands of homes and killing hundreds.
Firefighters were making progress, but three main wildfires that ignited Tuesday were still not extinguished: The Lahaina fire was 85% contained, the Pulehu/Kihei fire 80%, and the Upcountry Maui fire 50% as of late Friday.
Another fire that prompted evacuations in the Kaanapali area of West Maui on Friday evening was 100% contained within a few hours and evacuation orders were canceled, officials said.
As the sun rose in Kihei on Saturday, the sky was filled with the smell of smoke.
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On the highway into Lahaina, a historic town decimated by the fires, cars, trucks and buses laden with supplies ignored signs to keep off the median as they tried to bypass the traffic jam ahead of a road blockade.
Residents who were allowed to return to Lahaina on Friday were met with charred remains, demolished homes and businesses and a changed landscape, including the loss of dozens of their neighbors. But police on Saturday were once again restricting access into West Maui, warning people to stay out of the area because of hazards, including toxic particles from smoldering areas.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green has warned the death toll could climb even higher as the search for the missing continued.
Cadaver-sniffing dogs were brought in Friday to assist the search for the dead, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said.
In an aerial view, two men ride a scooter by businesses that were destroyed by a wildfire on 11 August, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.
Firefighters and emergency crews trying to battle the fires and keep people safe in shelters were operating on scant resources themselves, the governor said Friday.
Green said many buildings are so badly damaged in Lahaina and at risk of collapsing that the whole area is a public safety threat. About 30% of the firefighters working this week lost their own homes, Green told Hawaii News Now television.
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“They also don’t have cell service or ability to go home,” he said.
Some forms of health care are not available in Lahaina because a clinic and a dialysis center were “incinerated,” Green said.
Overly dry vegetation that acted as fuel, the ongoing drought, strong winds from Hurricane Dora, a high-pressure system and dryness of the atmosphere made for a devastating combination that allowed the flames to spread at a faster pace than firefighters could contain them.
The warning system was notably silent on Maui before residents were forced to run for their lives Tuesday, survivors and officials said. Instead, alerts on cellphones, televisions and radios went out across the island, but widespread power outages and cell signal loss made it unclear how successful that warning was.
“There was no warning. There was absolutely none. Nobody came around. We didn’t see a fire truck or anybody,” said Lynn Robinson, who lost her home in the fire.
Associated Press reporters saw an eerie traffic jam of charred cars that didn’t escape the inferno as surviving roosters meandered through the ashes.
Jesse Kong, resident and owner of a concrete pumping company, described to USA TODAY the horror of fleeing on his bike while seeing others stuck and the highway on fire. One abandoned fire engine still had its lights on. Another was just a smoldering shell.
Kong saw people trapped inside a car fully engulfed by flames; they were screaming. A traffic signal had fallen on the vehicle. He couldn’t get close.
“You can see their flesh burning,” he said. “There was nothing I could do.”